Spy Journal 3.0 Filtering the web for you

After a massive 72 hour week I decided to take Saturday off. The only exercise I had had all week was a 1 hour football training run on Wednesday night. So Friday night after Kitty (who works for me) and I had finished work Peter her fiancé came over. Jude went to bed early so we stayed up and played a board game called Power Grid. After Peter and Kitty went to bed I then stayed up even later playing Lara Croft Tomb Raider underworld. In the  morning, Jude went off to an all day reptile course. Grace came to baby sit the kids while Peter, Kitty and I headed off to the hills. We met Peter’s brother Greg on the way. We spent a glorious hour and a half riding in the rain forest. A massive slippery down hill – very steep, lots of technical stuff and thick with very slippery dust was a lot of fun. Kitty had a big off. This was the steepest she had ever ridden before. I actually saw her perform an over the handlebars somersault landing on her back and sliding. Surprisingly little damage to skin and only a few  tears. She is a tough brave lass! However she will be sore for a few days. Then we had a long slog up hill to get back to where we left the cars.

After Peter and Kitty left and I had a shower, I sat the kids down and we decided what to do in the afternoon. Swimming and the zoo were both requested. So I made them put their togs on under their clothes and we headed to the zoo. We spent 2 and a half hours wandering around and checking out the animals. Lots of fun and we missed lots, but we can go back – we have annual passes!

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From there we headed to the beach, and even though it was blustery, the wind and water was warm and the kids enjoyed swimming, exploring and playing. Jude came straight to the beach from her course, and we had fish and chips and ice cream at the local beach side store.

I have entered a 2 day intensive of coding. I am effectively off the air. I have turned on my out of office notification on my email, handed my email over to my personal assistant to manage anything urgent, handed her my phones as well, gone offline on messenger and set Skype to do not disturb. Tweetdeck has been shutdown and i have placed a barrier in front of my office so no one can get in. I have got a fridge full of energy drinks, tonic water and bottled water. I will be posting some blog articles that were pre written so it looks like I’m still here if i get around to it in a break.

See you on the other side.

It is hard to write about inane gadgets and web stuff while the horrific conflict in Gaza continues. I hope Israel can rout out the monsters who use innocent civilians and children as human shields while they perpetrate their hatred.

As some commentators have asked, which generation will decide to end the hatred? It must take so much resolve for Israel to go in and brave the international outcry from uninformed bigots and even attacks from within their own country. I hope they do not bow to pressure and stop until they have destroyed both the infrastructure for terror and the leaders of this organisation. Maybe then the mothers will have a chance to teach their children forgiveness and tolerance without the rabid fanatics brainwashing them with hatred of their neighbours. Some pictures if you have the stomach for them.

Anyway – here’s the round up of stuff I haven’t got time to review individually but wanted to share.

Helpless: A New Tilt-Shift Time-Lapse Video by Keith Loutit - This one is named “Helpless” and features the daily activity of everything happening at a Bondi beach in Australia.

Qik has Support for 20+ NEW phones so you don't miss any holiday moments!

Between New Worlds has two interesting articles about technology:

• The Implementation of Technology and Its Dangers for Our Soul
• Toward a Christian Philosophy of Technology

Facebook Trojan Virus... Not a problem if you have a Windows Home Server.

Speedtest for your internet connection. Other cool internet IR related tools there as well – email trace, IP trace, IP Whois proxy checkers etc.

I have belatedly created a last.fm account so you can track my music collection and listening preferences. It seems skewed a little, but that is maybe because i listen to random play all a lot.

I just received an amazing package in the mail. Delivered to the door in fact. It had been kindly opened for us by Australian Quarantine – I think they thought we were hiding our cocaine in it. The smell of the chili would have confused the sniffer dogs no end.

Let me back track.